Conventional electronic mail (e-mail) and Hyper-text Markup Language (HTML) documents have become popular means for sending data across the Internet. These electronic documents often include contact information for persons or entities sending the documents. This contact information typically includes telephone numbers and address information, and can further include conventional web addresses or e-mail addresses in conventional hyper-text format. The hyper-text addresses permit a reader of the document to “click” on the bolded and underline hyper-text, using a conventional mouse, and immediately access a website associated with the hyper-text using a conventional web browser. Hyper-text additionally permits a reader of a document to “click” on hyper-text of e-mail addresses to quickly compose and send e-mail to the e-mail addresses contained in the hyper-text. Conventional hyper-text, therefore, permits quick and easy contact with persons and entities contained in electronic documents.
Electronic documents, however, also often contain telephone numbers associated with persons or entities that a reader may wish to contact. In contrast to the use of hyper-text links, a reader of an electronic document conventionally is required to manually enter a telephone number, contained in the electronic document, into a telephone to enable the reader to contact a person or entity associated with the telephone number.
Therefore, there exists a need for a system and method that, similar to hyper-text links for e-mail and web-site addresses, permit quick and easy establishment of a telephone call with a telephone associated with a telephone number contained in an electronic document, using a computer input device, such as a mouse.